As you may have heard, Michelle Obama recently wore a red Alexander McQueen evening gown to a state dinner held in honor of the Chinese president, Hu Jintao. This apparently made a lot of people very unhappy.

Independent-minded designer Isabel Toledo was widely known in fashion before Michelle Obama wore one of her ensembles on inauguration day, but it was probably the latter event that made Toledo enough of a "name" to warrant a collection for Payless.

• This makes so much sense! Levi's sizing system is now taking into account one very important metric: your ass. Because bodies are three-dimensional, and sometimes people with the same measurements are very different shapes.

• Naomi Campbell, Iman, and Liya Kebede grace the cover of Essence's 40th anniversary September issue. [Fashion Bomb Daily]
• Two retail bigwigs got into a wee fight about how much of Martha Stewart's products they each sell. [P6]

• Tyra Banks has signed a deal to write three YA novels that will marry modeling with Harry Potter — the protagonist having been accepted into an academy for "intoxibellas," or supermodels-in-training who "harbor unknown powers." What, no vampires? [Galleycat]

• The inquest into Alexander McQueen's death has revealed that before he hanged himself, the designer took a lethal quantity of cocaine, as well as tranquilizers and sleeping pills. He also slit his wrists. He left a note, which read:

• Pictures of a 15-year-old Angelina Jolie modeling for photographer Harry Langdon will be auctioned in California on Friday. [Vogue UK]
• Karl Lagerfeld dressed Simone Veil in Chanel for her induction into the Académie Française. [WWD]

Last night's episode was the one I've been waiting for. Thinking outside the box! Using nontraditional materials! Making models look like half-naked '60s go-go girl Barbie dolls!

Charles Kleibacker, a master of bias construction who worked at Lanvin before founding his own label, has died. Isabel Toledo called Kleibacker — one of the first American designers who didn't copy Europeans — "a gift, a treasure." [ColumbusDispatch, WWD]